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Edited & Last Updated 11/2/2001 by jow

WNYPRI/BISSNET 
21^st Century Fund Grant Application
Working Group

PLEASE ACT NOW!  THERE WILL BE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO ADD PARTICIPANTS AND LETTERS OF SUPPORT IN NOVEMBER.  SEE WHAT YOU CAN DO BELOW. 

WHAT WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED

Carol Kostyniak, our Chairperson, is working with Grant Consultant Connie Miner to take advantage of a unique opportunity to promote our regional public sector internetworking agendas and, possibly, to actually secure some of the start-up funding we need for shared support facilities.  This particular grant, from the 21st Century Fund, has a submission deadline of 10/1 and an opportunity to amend the proposal in November.  We need your letters of support to strengthen the application and, more importantly, the presentations that will be made as part of the proposal submission process.  

Carol used this particular grant opportunity previously with BISSNET to great advantage.  The proposal process exposes many important community groups and funding agencies to whatever is being proposed and helps pave the way for other funding opportunities.  Even if the application itself is not the strongest or best developed, the process will help us make our common agenda better known.  Please help out if you can.  We know that time is short but any response from you and your institution will be far better than none at all.

While the proposal has now been submitted to the Fund for evaluation, we still need your Letters of Support.  There will be an opportunity to amend the proposal in Novemvber and we expect to start circulating it to other potential funding sources for consideration.  Please see Who To Contact and Letters Of Support below.

FRAMEWORK/OVERVIEW

The outline distributed at our last meeting on Wednesday 9/19 follows:

WNYPRI will request $150,000 from The 21^st Century Fund to construct a Multi-Point Video Conferencing Center located at the University of Buffalo.  This Center will allow partners to access many (50-100) points simultaneously  using state-of-the-art equipment and technology infrastructure.  Rather than each partner purchasing low-end video conferencing units, this Center will provide the mechanism to cost-share equipment costs, as well as the maintenance and operations of this Center in perpetuity.  Furthermore, the equipment that can be acquired by pooling the resources of all partners is robust and will accommodate a greater number of users.

On behalf of WNYPRI, BISSNET will be submitting an application to The 21^st Century Fund, coordinated by The Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo.  In order to submit a viable application, we need background information and a letter of support from all partnering organizations.  

WHAT YOU CAN DO

20011029:  The proposal has now been submitted and the presentations will take place this evening, October 29th.  It's not too late to help out with a Letter of Support, however.  We will have an opportunity to revise our proposal in November to add new participants or to change the proposed specifics.  

Regardless of the outcome of this submission, we expect to continue to refine and circulate the proposal whenever opportunities arise.  Given the number of regional institutions already identified as formal collaborators, we expect the proposal to receive favorable attention wherever it is appropriately circulated.  If you have not provided a Letter of Support, please consider doing so now; it will not be a wasted effort and may help secure the support necessary to get our envisioned facility started.  Letters of Support received to date are included below for your review.  Contact Carol Kostyniak or Jim Whitlock for information and assistance.

Provide background information on your organization and relevant applications (short and sketchy is better than none at all) and a Letter of Support to Carol Kostyniak or Connie Miner by close-of-business Friday, September 28^th.  See Who to Contact below.  If you missed the proposal deadline but are interested in providing a supporting letter, contact Carol Kostyniak directly for advice on how to help most.

WHO TO CONTACT

20011029:  With the proposal completed and delivered to the 21st Century Fund, Carol Kostyniak is now the sole primary contact for proposal related activity.  Please contact her directly with any questions.  Connie Miner's contact information is still listed in the interest of completeness and for future reference.

Carol Kostyniak
Email:    kostynct@buffnet.net
Phone:    (716) 875-8212 ext 214

Connie D. Miner
Email:    MinerConni@aol.com
Phone:    (716) 759-3336
Cell:        (716) 491-7262 
FAX:      (716) 759-0385

If you're having trouble connecting with Carol or Connie and think you can help, page email or page Jim Whitlock at whitlock@buffalo.edu or (716) 619-8180 and he'll try to help with whatever you may need.

BACKGROUND MATERIAL

1. Memo to WNY-PRI the complete memo and background information survey distributed at our meeting on 9/19.  An MS Word file.

2. MCU Grant Description: A draft proposal from Veraview, Inc. that outlines the equipment and implies the services that would be supported for the partnership.  An Adobe Acrobat PDF file.  Please be clear that this is a preliminary draft.  A T.120 server and an H.323 ISDN PRI Gateway will also be included if at all possible.

3. Grant Application Draft of 9/26/2001.  Carol's accompanying note follows:

Hello all, Here is the draft of the grant. I have asked Connie to include a statement regarding possible equipment changes or revisions since we are nearly 6 months out before the grant is awarded.  You all should also know that the 21st Century Fund allows applicants to revise their grants again in November to add new participants or a change in requests. The 21st Century Fund website is: http://www.cfgb.org/21CFund/21centuryfund.htm I apologize that this initial deadline is soooo tight and I appreciate your cooperation. A million Thank you's Carol Carol A. Kostyniak, Director BISSNET   (Buffalo Independent Secondary Schools       Network) 1250 Amherst St. Buffalo, New York  14216 p: 716-875-8212 ext 214  fax: 716-875-2169 e: kostynct@buffnet.net www.bissnet.org

LETTERS OF SUPPORT

Letters of Support for our proposal have been received from at least fourteen people and institutions within the region.  All such letters will be posted here as soon copies are forwarded:

PROPOSAL FINAL DRAFT: Submitted 10/1/2001

• 21st Century Fund Final Proposal Cover.pdf  - Proposal Cover 

• 21st Century Fund Final Proposal Narrative.pdf  - Proposal Narrative

BOOTH & POSTER DESIGNS

While the entire steering committee worked on and contributed heavily to the booth and poster designs, Tino Bellanca of Veraview deserves special credit along with the most raucus huzzahs and kudos for his inspired and dominant contributions to the mechanical designs, artistic designs, and production of the final posters and booth layout.  

• Exhibit Booth Design - 20011023.pdf  - Final Presentation Booth Design

• Poster Display Middle Panel - 20011024.pdf  - Final Draft for Booth Middle Panel

• Poster Display Side Panels - 20011024.pdf  - Final Draft for Booth Side Panels

SUPPLEMENTAL HANDOUTS

• Tech Specs for 21st Century Center - 20011029b.pdf  - One-page technical summary

• HTML version of printed brochure - Printed summary brochure (takes least time to download)

• Brochure VS 9 page1.pdf - Printed summary brochure 1^st page (longer download but most accurate)

• Brochure VS 9 page2.pdf  - Printed summary brochure 2^nd page (longer download but most accurate)

21st CENTURY FUND WEB SITES

• Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo

• 21st Century Fund

• 21st Century Fund - Funding Requests for 2001/2002

POSTER PRESENTATION WORK-GROUP

Editors Note:  This activity is now complete and the results of the group's work have been posted at BOOTH & POSTER DESIGNS  and SUPPLEMENTAL HANDOUTS above.  I, for one, was extremely impressed with what all of the contributors managed to put together with lightning speed in the midst of an activity that often feels like it's moving at a glacial pace.  While lots of people contributed heavily to the effort, I think that Carol Kostyniak, our Chairperson and Director of BISSNET, and Tino Bellanca, of Veraview, deserve our special thanks and kudos: Carol for somehow having managed to galvanize the group into action and for having catalyzed and carried the process forward at unprecedented speed to such an exceptionally fine milestone conclusion and Tino for having contributed so much to the graphic designs and the presentation booth itself.  Connie Miner, the local Grant Consultant who Carol selected to work on the proposal draft itself, also deserves special credit; she not only drafted an exceptionally good proposal from all of our material and input at a breakneck pace but also, somehow, managed to actually understand and articulate what we're trying to accomplish in words that non-technical people can and do understand.  This latter is something that many of us have been trying to do for years now without a lot of success, so it seems like quite an impressive accomplishment to us!   -- jow 2001/11/02

An ad-hoc group will be working on a poster presentation for the proposal presentation/defense reception on October 29th.  Please help out if you have interest, time, skills and ideas.  Susan Ellis will be hosting and coordinating the first meeting on Saturday, October 13, 2001 at 7:00 PM at the Ellis' house.  Directions follow.  Contact Sue directly with any questions.  Future work-group meeting plans will be posted here as received.

20011013 Poster Presentation Work-Group Meeting:  Saturday, October 13th, 7:00 PM, at the Ellis' residence at 98 Washington Highway, Snyder.  This will be the first brainstorming meeting for poster presentation ideas.  All are welcome and we can accommodate any size group.  The meeting can take place either Saturday or Sunday night beginning around 7:00 PM.  People are welcome to come whenever their schedule allows.  Respond directly to Susan Ellis if you can help out Sunday but not Saturday or if you would like to hear directly about follow-on meetings.  The address is 98 Washington Hwy, Snyder.  The street runs off Main Street and is next to Amherst Central High School (across from Daemon College) between Eggert & Harlem Roads.  Coming from the 33, one can take the Harlem Road exit, turn left, and continue on to Main Street where you would turn left again.   Washington Hwy is the third street on the left.  The house is on the left side of the first block.  The phone number is 839-3213.